As the menacing souls continue to loom over Richard, Robo's
metallic voice calmly advises the Chosen One not to touch the souls because they
are made of anti-matter. The souls meanwhile form an enormous serpent, its head
grinning evilly at Richard. Suddenly wondering aloud what would happen if matter
meets anti-matter, Richard reaches behind him and picks up a shard from one of
the broken glass spheres and hurls it at the snake's body.

Upon touching
the snake's head, a series of explosions immediately rock the Library as the
head implodes with a firework-like spark, followed by the rest of its body. One
clump of souls explodes in such a way that it blasts a hole in one of the
Library walls, releasing sunlight into the room. Richard and Robo quickly escape
toward the hole as the rest of the snake's body destroys itself.

Upon hurling himself outside, Richard sees a
welcome sight waiting for him: the cybercruiser patiently hovering just oustside
the Library wall. The Chosen One and Robo quickly climb on and soar into the air
as the entire Library is engulfed in flames and disintegrates in the flames. The
pair fly away from the scene in silence until Richard notices a change in
scenery. He points out to his companion that the landscape had morphed into a
sprawlin network of pipes and canals, which Robo identifies as Pipe City, the
place where Richard must seek out the Omni Piece.

Amidst the pipes, Richard spies a landing pad
and sends the cruiser down upon it for a landing. There, the two inspect the
various pipes, which Robo says contain either toxic waste or highly pressurized
air. Just then, a sound alerts Richard, and he turns to see a group of
cone-shaped creatures approaching him. Robo identifies them as Spikers, robots
attracted to movement and armed with deadly plasma spears. One Spiker emphasizes
Robo's last point by firing a spear at Richard, barely missing him. Richard and
Robo immediately turn and flee through the maze of pipes and canals to lose the
Spikers, and soon they are hopelessly lost.

They eventually emerge in a
large open space, where Robo says that they have lost the Spikers, but a loud
humming sound indicates a new presence is approaching. Moments later, Richard
see this new life form: a giant glowing, pulsing, floating crystal with
human-like features in its surface.

The giant crystal approaches the pair and
identifies itself as Terraforma, environmorph, and guaranteed a fun time.
Richard almost relaxes at the being's words, but then recalls the seemingly
angelic Peter back in the Library. Suspicious, Richard asks Terraforma what an
environmorph is, which caused the crystal to alter its pulses. A beeping sound
alerts Richard to a new message on Robo's panel, and he quickly tries to decode
it, but Terraforma's hypnotic gaze draws his attention away from the
panel.

Terraforma answers the Chosen One's question by stating he can
change the environment, and he orders Richard to approach him. Richard does so,
and as he gazes into a red beam pulsing from the gem's forehead, the world
around Richard bursts into flame, both the ground and the very air set alight.
Terraforma mocks Richard as he attempts to get his sword, and the environment
again changes, this time into a icy wasteland that freezes Richard where he
stands.

Knowing he can't take another extreme weather change,
Richard tries turning to Robo, who is still encased in flame. By chance, Richard
sees the binary panel and uses his fear to translate the message at a frantic
pace. He instantly understands the message and asks Robo if any Spikers are in
the vicinity. When Robo confirms this is so, Richard asks Robo to draw them in.
Robo does so by flailing about and moving around frantically. The Spikers, drawn
by the movement, appear almost immediately.

Robo shoots himself into the
air and the Spikers hesitate for a moment before bypassing the immobile Richard
and targeting Terraforma, who is spinning wildly. The Spikers surround the
environmorph and fire a storm of plasma spears at it. The giant crystal tries to
escape, but one plasma spear lands directly in the crystal's giant heart.
Terramorpha shatters into a thousand shards, and immediately the environment
reverts back to normal.

Richard thaws out and quickly rushes to his
companion, who had been struck by a ricocheted Spiker spear. The robot assures
Richard that his circuits are still fine and says that the Chosen One needs to
retrieve the Omni Piece, which is held inside a large citadel shaped like a
crouching spider.

The Spikers are still nearby, however, and
approaching the pair. Richard spies an open pipe and leads his friend to it. The
two of them jump inside and are quickly carried away by a powerful current of
air. Richard and Robo are forced to let the current take them wherever it goes,
unable to even slow themselves down or stop themselves from spinning like fired
bullets.

After a seemingly endless journey, the pipe
abruptly spits Richard and Robo out, sending them into a fall toward a waterway
filled with toxic waste. Richard by chance lands on a platform at the pipe's
mouth, but is moving so quickly he falls over the edge. Before he can fall into
the sludge, Robo fires a series of flexible cables tipped with suction cups,
which grab Richard and prevents him from falling down. The robot pulls the
Chosen One to safety, and the two of them find themselves outside of the
Citadel.

The pair climb a nearby set of stairs to a large pair of double
doors, which Richard opens. Inside, he finds a massive glass dome on a circular
plinth, with large waves of energy spinning inside the spherical glass. Richard
asks what it is, but Robo's sensors are for some reason being repelled. Curious,
Richard climbs the plinth and taps the glass. Suddenly, a pure energy bolt is
fired from within the glass and knocks Richard back to the ground. Robo rushes
to help, but another bolt strikes him and sending him flying back. Behind them,
the door suddenly close.

The glass dome begins to rise and the plinth
extend, and from inside the globe something resembling a giant eye can be seen.
A booming voice is heard, declaring that the sanctity of the Citadel has been
broken, and that the defier must answer the Keepr's challenge, for it is the
Law. Robo tries to say something, but the Keeper fires another bolt at him and
renders the robot silent. Richard is horrified, but the Keerp declares that
robots must be deactivated inside the Citadel, for it is the Law.

The
Keeper again declares Richard must answer its challenge, but Richard insists
Robo is reactivated, at least outside. Finding no conflict, the Keeper opens the
doors and uses another energy bolt to send Robo outside. The Keeper then demands
that Richard must answer three question within an allotted time without lying.
However, even if Richard wins, he will still be destroyed for defiling the
Citadel. This is the Law. As Richard ponders how to exploit the Keeper's
reliance on his rules, the Keerp begins its questioning.

The Keeper first
asks for Richard's name. It then asks Richard if he is the Chosen One. The third
question is, perplexingly, "What is inside of you?" Richard is unable to come up
with an answer within five time units. The Keeper looks ready to destroy Richard
when the Chosen One pleads to ask one question himself. The Law permits one
question, so the Keeper allows it. Richard asks the Keeper, "I always lie - and
that's the truth. Do I now speak the truth?"

The Keeper screams that it
has been tricked, but Richard reminds it that it must answer, because it is the
Law. The Keeper struggles to find an answer to the paradox and sends energy
through its channels that were never intended to take such a load. All of this
diverted heat causes the Keeper to burst into a heatwave as the glass dome
suddenly starts to melt. The voice of the Keeper muttering possible answers
continues to be heard until the glass dome impodes in a shower of
sparks.

Robo, reactivated, re-enters the chamber and
declares simply that Richard is indeed the Chosen One. Lying in the wreckage of
the Keeper is a small glittering triangle, which Robo states is the Omni Piece.
Triumphant, Richard reaches down and picks up the piece. As soon as he does, he
feels faint and senses his strength being drained from his body. He almost
immediately collapses to the floor and blacks out.

Comments:

For the
thirty-third issue of The Ancestral Trail, we finally get to see
the MacGuffin of the Cyber World, the Omni Pieces. Introduced way back in issue
twenty-nine, the Omni Pieces are the Life Force Pods of this world and will
drive Richard around the Cyber Dimension. Of course, the reader will care more
about Richard's journey than the actual pieces themselves, similar to how the
reader cared more about the Ancestral World than the Pods. This is a common plot
device in fantasy fiction, after all. One interesting twist about the Omni
Pieces, though, is their apparent deadliness: as soon as he touched the Omni
Piece, Richard fell unconscious. So unlike the Pods, which bestowed knowledge
and courage, etc., to the Chosen One, it seems these items can kill
him.

One thing you may be wondering about is what that strange "panel" is
in the last picture above. Is it meant to be there, blocking the artwork like
that? Is it some kind of visual game in the Ancestral Trail series, similar to
finding Shoomi and Shoobi? In actuality, these panels do play an important part
in the Cyber Dimension, but to mention their purpose now would be to spoil
things heavily. Their purpose will be revealed eventually, I
promise.

Finally, there is one small yet noticeable plot hole that I
can't help but wonder about. In the Holotron issue, Richard and Robo entered the
citadel inside the giant mountain because it was the only way to get through,
and also because inside was the Omni Piece. In doing so, they had to abandon the
Cyber Cruiser. However, after destroying the Atomizers (the evil souls) and
escaping the Library, Richard and Robo find the Cyber Cruiser waiting for them
on the other side. Also, the Omni Piece turns out to be located in Pipe City,
far away from the underground fortress.